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Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

NSW slammed for being soft on plastic bags

Environment groups say NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has sold out to big business over its plastics pollution policy.

It comes after Western Australian announced this week it will join South Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Queensland and the ACT in moving to ban single-use plastic shopping bags next year.

NSW and Victoria are the only states not to adopt similar measures.

Ms Berejiklian this week said her government did not need to ban shopping bags because Coles and Woolworths would phase them out within the next year.

She pointed to litter from used plastic bottles and containers as being the real problem in NSW.

She encouraged people to recycle their used plastic drink bottles via the 10 cent container deposit scheme set to be managed by Coca-Cola Amati, Carlton and United Breweries, Asahi, Coopers and Lion from December 1.

Her comments were pounced on by environmental groups, with Greenpeace deputy program director Susannah Compton saying it amounted to the Berejiklian government handing over power to corporate interests.

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"Saying there is no need to move on plastic bags because Woolworths and Coles have announced bans is an effective relinquishing of environmental leadership by the NSW premier," she told AAP in a statement.

Greenpeace, citing a 2016 report by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority, disputed the premier's claim the retailers' phase out would result in 80 per cent less shopping bags hitting the streets.

It said even if the two supermarket majors, along with Harris Farm, IGA and Aldi, phased out bags, fast food restaurants, liquor outlets, convenience stores and other retailers in NSW still hand out one billion bags each year.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley accused the government of dragging its feet and said corporate Australia should not be left to manage plastic pollution alone.

"It's a no-brainer," he said.

"But the premier is happy for us to be the environmental black sheep."

Greens MP Justin Field echoed calls for a ban on single-use plastic bags while criticising the government for a lack of "an integrated, long-term plan for reducing and eliminating plastic and other waste".

In July, the Woolworths group admitted it handed out more than 3.2 billion plastic bags a year but Coles remained tight-lipped on its numbers.

Veteran ban-the-bags campaigner John Dee estimated the Wesfarmers-owned retailer was likely to be using 2.5 billion bags annually.